Bryan Strawser

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Archives for March 2004

Lex: Friday Musings

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Lex drops some thoughts in his weekly Friday Musing – the best is at the end though:

And I’ll tell you something privately, just you and me: I’m proud of what we did. If I live to be a hundred years old, I don’t know that I’ll ever have the chance to do something so important, be a part of something so selfless, change the lives of so many people so positively, ever again.

No WMD found? I can live with that. One less thing to worry about.

Twenty-five million people liberated from the kind of oppression you will never understand unless you’d lived it yourself?

Priceless.

And we’re proud of you for what you and your men have done…

Colonel Peter J. Stewart

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While at the Vietnam Memorial last week, I was struck by this note left behind at the panel bearing the name of Colonel Peter J. Stewart:



Colonel Stewart was declared missing in action eight years before I was born – to this day, his family does not know what happened to him. You can read more about his crash here.

I have thought of him often this week…

The Next Generation

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Many times, I have talked with like-minded friends about how they came to their beliefs about living in the United States – about freedom – about our responsibilities as citizens – and so on. It is through these processes that our understanding of freedom – and it’s cost – is passed from generation to generation.

There have been times in the past few years when I have wondered and feared about the next generation of Americans – if they will understand and value freedom the same way that my family and I do. Will they remember why this nation came to be? Will they understand what it means to stand in the Lincoln Memorial and read the Gettysburg Address? Will they remember why we went to Europe to fight in World War I and II?

Will they remember why we have sent men (and now women) off to fight in foreign lands?

Will they remember that freedom is not free?

This week, at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, a letter and a note left there in memory of those that gave their lives reminded me that the next generation hasn’t forgotten what it means to be a citizen of the United States.




Click on Photo for larger version

Friedman: Axis of Appeasement

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As usual, Tom Friedman of the New York Times says it better than I ever could:

The notion that Spain can separate itself from Al Qaeda’s onslaught on Western civilization by pulling its troops from Iraq is a fantasy. Bin Laden has said that Spain was once Muslim and he wants it restored that way. As a friend in Cairo e-mailed me, a Spanish pullout from Iraq would only bring to mind Churchill’s remark after Chamberlain returned from signing the Munich pact with Hitler: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”  

Read it…

Survey: Iraqis are Better Off

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Also yesterday, a ABC News poll found 48 percent of Iraqis believe the United States was right to lead an invasion of their country, while 39 percent said it was wrong.

Fifty-six percent said their lives were better than before the war; 19 percent said worse.

Now, why don’t we hear about this poll – a friend of mine found it buried at the end of an article in the Boston Herald.

Aeschylus

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In our sleep, pain that cannot forget
Falls drop by drop upon the Heart
And in our despair against our will comes wisdom
Through the Awful Grace of God

– Aeschylus